The PMJDY was launched to ensure access to financial services such as banking, savings, deposit accounts, remittance, credit, insurance, pension in an affordable manner.

The Modi government today launched a media blitzkrieg with a slogan ‘Saaf Niyat, Sahi Vikas’ (clean intentions, right development) on its fourth anniversary, listing out its achievements in a range of areas, including the surgical strikes undertaken by the Army across the border with Pakistan in 2016. (Reuters)

The Modi government today launched a media blitzkrieg with a slogan ‘Saaf Niyat, Sahi Vikas’ (clean intentions, right development) on its fourth anniversary, listing out its achievements in a range of areas, including the surgical strikes undertaken by the Army across the border with Pakistan in 2016. Through advertisements in major newspapers, the government sought to highlight the measures it had taken for the poor — the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), scheme for providing insurance cover at a cheap rate, electrification of four crore households, and the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) under which 3.8 crore BPL families were given free LPG connections. The PMJDY was launched to ensure access to financial services such as banking, savings, deposit accounts, remittance, credit, insurance, pension in an affordable manner.

The PMUY was launched in 2016. Addressing reporters on the occasion of the Modi government’s fourth anniversary, BJP president Amit Shah said that through the 2016 surgical strikes conducted by the Indian Army across the Line of Control (LoC), the government exhibited its political willingness to take on the country’s adversaries. “In a historic first, India carried out surgical strikes showing a new mettle,” according to an advertisement. At a rally in Cuttack, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his government was committed to fighting corruption. “Three thousand raids were conducted by various agencies and undeclared income to the tune of Rs 73,000 crore was unearthed. Tough rules against black money have sent shivers down the spines of many who have come under one platform,” Modi said, targeting the corrupt.

Listing out the achievements of demonetisation, a move that was severely criticised by the opposition, the advertisements claimed it led to the country’s highest ever unearthing of suspicious transactions and deposits. It also claimed that legislations such as the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act and the Benami Property Act were brought in to avoid corruption. Shah also hailed the work done by his party’s government in these areas. Stating that no village is without power now, Shah said the government recently covered 16,800 villages, which had over 50 per cent Dalit population, with its seven welfare schemes, Jan Dhan bank account, toilets and LPG cylinder for all homes, and will cover 65,000 villages by August 15.

For the welfare of the farmers, the government has a “mutli-faceted focus” on doubling farmers’ income, besides distributing 12.5 crore soil health cards and insurance under the PM Fasal Bima Yojana at nominal rates, according to the advertisements. Shah noted that under the Swachh Bharat Mission, the flagship initiative of the Narendra Modi government, seven crore toilets were built. In the area of infrastructure, he said projects worth lakhs of crores of rupees were implemented “without a scam”. This includes 53,000 km road worth Rs 5.35 lakh crore under the Bharat Mala initiative. The largest tunnel and the largest bridge in the country were built by the Modi government, which has also initiated bullet train project on Mumbai-Ahemdabad route, he said. Under Ayushman Bharat, the government intends to provide health insurance to 10 crore families, the BJP president said.